<html><head><title>Manager of Sensory & Consumer Science - Emeryville, CA 94608</title></head>
<body><h2>Manager of Sensory & Consumer Science - Emeryville, CA 94608</h2>
<div><div><h2 class="jobSectionHeader"><b>Job Details</b></h2></div><div><h3 class="jobSectionHeader"><b>
Description</b></h3></div><p></p><ul><p>
Premier Nutrition Corporation (PNC) distributes nutritional food products to the health-conscious consumer under the brand names Premier Protein, PowerBar, Supreme Protein, and Joint Juice. With its <i>people first</i> culture, PNC treats employees with positivity and empathy and embraces new and innovative ideas that spark passion, personal growth, and a healthy dose of fun around the office. Bringing dogs to work, company-wide volunteer days, philanthropy and sustainability programs, in-office massages, walking meetings and workouts at the adjacent City Sports Club gym are just a few ways we help you increase your own good energy.</p><p>
What’s it like to work here? Picture the scrappy culture of a start-up, the innovativeness of a tech company, with the resources and systems of a respected consumer brand under the Post Holdings umbrella, and you should have a sense of what it feels like to work at PNC. You’ll walk into the brand-new Emeryville office each Monday morning and find a hundred of your colleagues sitting on sofas, overstuffed pillows, the floor, or beanbags talking through the week ahead and learning about each other.</p><p>
PNC seeks individuals who will thrive in this collaborative work environment and will help build our high-growth company. Our leadership principles capture the behaviors we aspire to and celebrate here—from ‘embodying a strategic mindset’ to ‘building people up’, each is a valuable tool in practicing leadership consistent with our values. <i>We are Builders</i> – looking for ways to challenge the <i>status quo</i>; <i>Champions of Positive Nutrition</i> - taking our role as health and nutrition seriously; <i>Better Together</i> – because we know that success is only achievable through our collective efforts; and we Ring the Bell, by celebrating big and small wins.</p><p>
PNC is part of the Active Nutrition segment and is operated by its own senior leadership team, with publicly traded Post Holdings, Inc. (FY 2018 sales of $6.3 billion) as a parent company acting in a “private equity” capacity. Post Holdings’ Active Nutrition segment is a leader in providing innovative products that support healthy, active lifestyles with over $800 million in sales. Premier Nutrition utilizes a third-party network for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution. Post Holdings is comprised of the Active Nutrition portfolio, which includes PNC, Dymatize, and Active Nutrition International (protein bars, shakes and powder products), Post Consumer Brands (cereals), Michael Foods (eggs, potato, cheese, and pasta), Weetabix (cereals), private label business groups, and Bob Evans Farms (a leader in frozen breakfast meats and vegetables).</p><p><b>
GENERAL SUMMARY:
</b></p><p>Reporting to the VP of Research and Development, this position is responsible for leading our Sensory Department, influencing and building strong relationships with internal partners, and conducting hands-on sensory and consumer science technical research in the pursuit of great tasting, high quality Premier Nutrition ready-to-drink (RTD) Shakes, powders and bars products.</p><p><b>
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:</b></p><p>
SENSORY PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: 50% of TIME</p><li>Coaches and supervises the Sensory &amp; Consumer Science staff including Scientists, Technicians and Panelists. Establishes individuals’ objectives consistent with corporate goals, monitors performance and conducts regular feedback sessions, and initiates action, as appropriate</li><li>Uses best practices project management skills to prioritize and monitor strategic project activities to ensure achievement of project goals, objectives and timelines</li><li>Maintains and drives industry leading sensory and consumer science methodology to add greater depth, breadth, and speed to the product development process while actively evaluating for cost savings</li><li>Meets research requests by developing rigorous sensory methodology within timeline and budget and communicates results within the context of project objectives and business goals</li><li>Leads and participates in tastings to move projects forward. Includes benchtop and consensus panel activities</li><li>Actively contributes to strategic product growth and improvement through assessment of priority product sensory data</li><li>Supports all types of internal and external sensory programs and projects including product Sensory, Discrimination, Descriptive and Consumer studies. This includes supporting lab personnel in preparation of samples for evaluation and training; coordinating product transfers; ordering samples and supplies for the sensory department as needed</li><li>Operates laboratory equipment in a consistent and accurate manner according to approved methods. Creates and revises methods, procedures and protocols as needed. Maintains calibration programs and performs all calibrations for the site to ensure accuracy and proper functionality of equipment</li><li>Compile, analyze and summarize data as a review for completeness and accuracy</li><li>Collaborating with Associate Sensory Scientist, write reports that include a summary of results, graphs and statistical analysis along with recommendations and/or next steps</li><li>Support troubleshooting efforts, day-to-day business processes and Research &amp; Development projects as required. Provide actionable results to scientists and advise project leads of any technical hurdles or logistics issues</li><p>
DEVELOP SENSORY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE: 50% of TIME</p><li>Effectively use appropriate Sensory tools in early part of product development</li><li>Assist the R&amp;D teams to shorten development timelines leveraging appropriate sensory tools</li><li>Experience in leading teams in developing new internal sensory capabilities</li><li>Effectively facilitate workgroups and meetings toward a shared goal</li><li>Experience in creatively building and expanding our target consumer pool</li><li>Design of experiments and multivariate sensory statistics</li><p><b>
QUALIFICATIONS:</b></p><p>
Education:</p><li>Bachelor’s degree in food science, sensory science, consumer science or related field required; Master’s degree preferred</li><p>
Experience:</p><li>4+ years of experience in Sensory Evaluation of food products in a Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) company, directly managing sensory staff and lab</li><li>Experience in sensory principles and current methodology in sensory testing</li><p>
Skills:</p><li>Proven ability to design and coordinate consumer research for food</li><li>Working knowledge of quantitative, qualitative, perceptual and experimental test methods</li><li>Excellent written and oral communication, teamwork and influencing skills. Ability to share and explain technical information to individuals with a wide range of backgrounds</li><li>Proven ability to apply sensory research techniques, with emphasis on uses and applicability to the product development environment</li><li>Educate partners in sensory subject matter through Corporate Training programs and develops learning tools</li><li>Demonstrated ability to present sensory information to key customer accounts</li><li>Demonstrated leadership and project management competencies; strong influencing, problem solving and implementation abilities; the ability to be self-directed; and synthesize complex data into concise and meaningful conclusions</li><li>Demonstrated ability to integrate between departments; share, obtain, and utilize information and perspective. Assist in product improvement efforts and new product development</li><li>Proven ability to manage direct reports, provide work direction, supervise, coach, lead, motivate and manage performance</li><li>Demonstrate knowledge of pertinent federal, state, and local laws, codes and regulations that are applicable to food quality and safety</li><li>Must be able to read, write, and communicate clearly</li><p><b>
JOB COMPLEXITY:</b></p><p>
Relationships:</p><p>
Internal: Builds relationships with strategic partners including Marketing, R&amp;D, Quality &amp; Food Safety and Operations to ensure that individual department and project plans meet long-range goals. Maintains contact with managers at other locations.</p><p>
External: Active participation in professional organizations. Maintains contact with resources and peers at technical trade organizations and companies. External consultants for the following activities, consumer testing, discrimination testing, descriptive testing, statistics, food analytical and chemical testing.</p><p><b>
JOB ACCOUNTABILITY:</b></p><p>
Work Structure: Works under the supervision of the V.P of R&amp;D. Incumbent develops, plans, and organizes own work with minimal input from supervisor to accomplish objectives and meet deadlines. Builds strong positive relationships with internal partners. Develops strategic plan, manages programs, delegates work, sets employee’s objectives, evaluates job performance and supervises/coaches staff.
</p><p>Post Holdings provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, status as a covered veteran and any other category protected under applicable federal, state, provincial and local laws.</p></ul></div><p></p><div><div><p>
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities</p><p>
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)</p></div></div></body>
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